Fear of Loss
by lamborambo
Summary: A new threat is making its way toward Starling City and Team Arrow might need help to combat it. Non season specific. Will be multiple chapters. Will contain other DC characters, but not necessarily Arrow characters. T for now.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my second attempt at writing Arrow realties stories so I'm still getting the hang of all of the formatting and stuff like that for this site. Please review and tell me what you think!**

Oliver sat perfectly still on his bike in the alleyway, observing the very quiet street with apprehension. For the past several days he had only had to deal with a few attempted robberies, muggings, and the occasional car jacking, which were nothing compared to dealing with the likes of Merlyn, Slade, Tockman, and a whole host of other criminals he had encountered and defeated. This decrease in criminal activity, especially in the still recovering Glades, should've made Oliver glad and a little hopeful that his actions were spurring the city, _his city_ he reminded himself, back to its former glory, but it did not. Instead it filled him with a sense of unease, as if something large and threatening were looming on the horizon, drawing closer with every passing day. He had gained this "sense" as Diggle called it, during his five years on the island where every day was a fight for survival, and ever since then he had learned to trust his instincts even if everything else was telling him otherwise. _Now is one of those times _thought Oliver, still staring out of the empty street.

A rumble of thunder turned his attention from the street to the sky where he saw a bright flash illuminate large storm clouds heading in his direction. As he was looking up at the sky, still lost in his thoughts, he heard Felicity's voice in his earpiece calling him back to reality.

"Oliver?" she asked questioningly.

"What is it?" he replied, instantly alert, the incoming storm all but forgotten.

"Sorry to ruin your quiet evening plans, but it looks like a building's alarm system just went off. About four blocks west of your position." said Felicity.

"On my way." said Oliver over the roar of his bike as it came alive.

"It looks like it's Statham Chemical Supplies" said Felicity. "Oliver, please be careful."

"Always am." he replied, opening the throttle to his bike as he leapt down the street.

As he sped through the streets at speeds far greater than the limit, Oliver wondered about who would break into a chemical supply store and what their intentions were. He figured that some chemicals and compounds could possibly be sold, but for how risky of a prize they were he didn't think they were after money. That only left one option; they, whoever they were, were intending to use them. As soon as he came to this conclusion the knot that had been forming in his gut for days tightened slightly. Chemical weapons were never a good thing.

When he rounded the street corner where Statham Chemicals was he saw that a white van was parked right next to the store, facing away from him. In order to keep his element of surprise he killed the power to his bike and leaned it carefully up against the side of a building, making as little noise as possible. He would have to cross the rest of the distance to the store on foot and hope that none of the thieves looked back down the street towards him, as the sidewalks were bathed in light from the streetlamps. According to Felicity, one of the first steps taken in the re-building of the Glades was to put working streetlamps everywhere along most streets, a decision that Oliver was now mentally cursing.

He moved as silently as he could down the sidewalk, hugging tight to the buildings as to expose as little of himself as he could. As he stalked up next to store, he quickly darted into the alleyway beside it as two men came walking out of the store, each of them carrying closed containers of something Oliver could only assume were the chemicals. They each deposited what they were carrying into the opened back end of the van and then turned around quickly to head back and get more of whatever they were after. When they had walked back towards the store, they were momentarily covered with light and Oliver immediately sized them up. One of the men was easily larger than Diggle in both height and size, his massive arms barely contained by a black jacket, his face obscured by a balaclava. The other man was also large, but nowhere near the size and bulk of his companion, and he was also wearing all black and a balaclava. As soon as they had stepped out of the light of the streetlamp and into the darkness again, Oliver used the time it would take their eyes to re-adjust to leap out at them and attack.

The first man crumpled to the pavement as Oliver's bow slammed into base of his neck, knocking him out instantly. The second, and larger of the two men jerked his head towards his fallen companion at the sound of Oliver's bow making contact, and clumsily reached to draw a weapon.

Oliver was ready for this, and from his crouched pose grabbed two flechettes on his left wrist between his fingers and flung them at the man's hand. Oliver knew that his flechettes had met their mark as he heard the man cry out in pain, and also the telltale sound of a gun clattering on pavement.

Now disarmed, the large man charged at Oliver, his large frame blocking out most of the light coming from the streetlamp. As large as the man was, he was equally slow and Oliver easy dodged, rolling to his left. Getting to his feet quickly Oliver delivered a flurry of blows to his back; hits that would have sent any other man flying to the pavement, but his opponent barely stumbled. Jumping out of the way of his right fist that he had swung backwards towards him, Oliver got in a crouched stance and launched himself forward, driving his knee into the man's solar plexus. The man grunted in pain, as he fell to his knees, clearly down but not out. Not wasting any time Oliver landed several ferocious blows to the man's head, trying to knock him out as quickly as possible.

Oliver pulled his right fist back to deliver the knockout punch when he heard the sound of car doors slamming. Looking to his left he saw the flash of what looked like an arm as the passengers side door slammed shut. Forgetting about his current opponent, Oliver turned, facing the van as it sputtered to life.

He went to draw an arrow from his quiver, but as he was bringing it down to fit into bow, his right arm was stopped. Looking away from the now moving van he saw that the large man had reached up with both of his hands and grabbed ahold of his right arm, effectively stopping him from drawing back his bowstring. Enraged, Oliver spun and smashed his left fist squarely into his jaw. Oliver felt the man's jawbones fracture and break beneath his fist and he was certain that he would not be getting up any time soon.

Turning back towards the street, Oliver drew back his arrow and took aim at the van. As he was about to release the arrow and send it through the back left tire, Oliver saw the car start to wobble and bend unnaturally and felt himself sway on his feet. He let the arrow fly, but instead of hitting its intended target, it buried itself several inches into the back door.

"Dammit!" Oliver yelled as he went to draw another arrow, but as he did so the van rounded the corner and sped off.

Bringing his arms down, he turned to go find his bike when he noticed a flash of color and light on his left arm. Looking down at his arm he saw that a fuzzy pink tipped dart was stuck in his arm. Pulling it out quickly, he held it between his fingers and started to study it, but as he began to focus on it, he again felt himself start to sway and he saw his hand and the dart moving before him. Closing his eyes to block out the feelings of dizziness he started to make his way quickly back to his bike.

"Felicity." he said into his earpiece.

"What?" responded Felicity quickly.

"I think I've been drugged. Maybe some type of toned down Vertigo." he ground out as he swung his legs over his motorcycle. He put the dart in one of his pockets to be analyzed later.

"What!" she exclaimed, the fear and confusion evident in her voice. "How? I thought that it couldn't be made anymore, now that The Count is dead!"

"Apparently it can." said Oliver, revving the bike's powerful engine and speeding off, back towards the Foundry.

"Are you alright? Do you need me or Digg to come get you?" she asked.

"No. It's not too bad if I don't focus." Oliver said.

Lightning flashed through the dark sky again followed closely by a great rumble of thunder. The storm wasn't that far away.

"Oliver!" yelled Felicity, clearly upset. "You're driving a motorcycle! Not focusing is exactly the opposite of what you need to be doing! Where are you right now?"

"I can make it back." said Oliver, exasperation in his voice as he had to shut his eyes again to block out the latest wave of hallucinations. "Have Digg make a Vertigo antidote and be ready to analyze the dart so we can figure out what the hell is in me."

"Ok." said Felicity quietly.

Opening his eyes again, Oliver had the quickly veer out of the oncoming lane, as he had drifted across while his eyes were shut. Trying to make his eyes go unfocused he stared at the straight road ahead of him, looking at nothing. That seemed to help keep the dizziness at bay as Oliver drove, pulling the throttle harder, willing himself to get back before everything got worse.

Turning to his right, he saw the outlines of Verdant flash in his vision about one hundred yards ahead of him. As he breathed a sigh of relief, he realized that the road seemed to be waving, almost like water, and that the buildings on either side of the road seemed to be closing in. Shutting his eyes tight again he held his bike on course to head back the Foundry, but with the wave a dizziness and nausea that overtook him he couldn't be sure. Wrenching his eyes open as late as he dared, he saw that the back entry was only twenty yards away. Slamming on his brakes he came to a lurching stop, just feet from the door. He stood up and swung his legs off of his bike, but immediately fell over as the dizziness became too much.

Groaning in pain, he tried to push himself up off the ground but found that he couldn't, as the ground was bowing up and down, like choppy waves in the ocean. Immediately Oliver felt like he was back on the life raft after the Queen's Gambit had sunk, constantly moving up and down, bending to the will of the unforgiving waves.

With a grunt he started to drag himself across the pavement, forcing himself to place one hand after the other on the moving ground and pull. He told himself over and over again the ground wasn't moving, that he wasn't moving, and that he just needed to get to the door.

Unknown to Oliver, rain had begun to fall from the sky, the fat drops splashing on the pavement. Even as he moved, the rain seemed to fall harder and harder with each passing second.

Looking up to put his right hand up he saw a familiar figure lying still on the ground ahead of him, wearing a blue jacket and khaki pants.

"Dad?" whispered Oliver, his eyes transfixed on the body.

As Oliver began to pull himself across the pavement and towards the figure, he saw another shape grow in his periphery. Glancing to his right, he saw the shape and outline of a woman, lying on her back on the pavement, the rain now falling in sheets.

"Mom?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he started at the bodies of his parents, sprawled out several feet before him.

The sight of his mother and father made Oliver pull himself as hard as he could across the wave-like pavement, his fingertips digging into the wet asphalt as he tried to reach them. Everything else was forgotten, even the voice of Felicity in his ear yelling his name, and the sounds of the ever-worsening storm.

"Please, don't go." he said, his voice hoarse as he tried to get closer to them, but no matter how close he came to them, they still seemed out of reach.

Suddenly a third figure appeared in his vision, standing between the bodies of his parents. Lightning flashed again as he looked up and he saw the slender outline of a young woman.

"Ollie," she croaked out, holding one hand to her stomach and the other out, as if trying to reach out to him. "You promised Ollie, you promised."

"Thea." he said in horror, watching wide-eyed, unable to move.

"You promised Ollie." Thea said again, this time weaker. Suddenly a dark crimson stain began to spread over her stomach, directly over where she was holding her hand and tears began to spill from her eyes. "You promised you'd keep us safe."

"Thea!" he screamed at the top of his voice. Wanting nothing more than to get closer he clawed his way across the pavement, which now seemed more like massive ocean swells rather than the waves they had once been. As he crawled towards the shapes of his dead and dying family, his vision began to tunnel, the world closing in around him. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the shape of Thea falling to her knees between her parents, and then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm not really a big fan of split POV stories, but I saw there was no other way to get around Oliver being passed out. Plus, I have some pretty cool (in my humble opinion) stuff planned for this chapter, and explaining that with Oliver not conscious would be a bit difficult. Also, if I've messed up any of the finer details I'm very sorry! I haven't been able to see season two yet, so if I've messed up details there (specifically about the lair) please give me some slack. So, here's chapter 2 as told from Digg's point of view. Thanks for reading, and please leave comments and reviews so I can know what to do better!**

John Diggle felt calm, relaxed even, as he landed blows in quick succession on the training dummy. For the past couple of weeks, they hadn't had to deal with anything serious in nature or threat level, and for that he was grateful. In fact, the most serious threat that they had dealt with was a thief who had a thing for breaking into cars, and he had been found and apprehended in a matter of days.

All of them needed this little hiatus from the more dangerous threats he thought as he continued to pound away at the dummy. With his recent upturn in down-time in the lair, he had focused more on his combat training, and he had to say that his skills had increased quite a bit. He could now spar with Oliver and only occasionally come out the clear loser. Another benefit of the respite in criminal activity was that they had all been finished before 11, which was some sort of record. He had been using his spare time wisely by spending more time at home with Lyla, who was probably still up, despite him telling her on multiple occasions that she didn't have to wait for him.

As he continued to pound away on the dummy, he heard Felicity's voice over the sound of his fists colliding with the dummy. Pausing, he listened to what she was saying.

"It looks like it's Statham Chemical Supplies" said Felicity, her back to him. "Oliver, please be careful."

Stepping away from the training mats Diggle started walking over to the large desk where Felicity sat with her computers. _Not her computers, her babies _he mentally corrected himself, rolling his eyes.

"What's up?" he asked, as he got closer to her chair.

Felicity swiveled her chair around to face him, a slight worried expression on her face.

"The alarm for a chemical supply store just went off," she said. "I don't know why someone would break in there, but I don't like it."

"That's not your ordinary target for a robbery," said Diggle, his brows furrowing a little as he glanced at her computer screens. "When did the alarm go off?"

"Just now," answered Felicity, not even glancing at her screens. Almost as if she sensed his follow up question, she answered him. "He was only four blocks away, and the way he drives, he'll be there in about five minutes."

"Good. Unless they're just after one thing, they'll still be there when he shows up. Lets just hope whoever's behind this doesn't grab something bad and use it on him." said Diggle, still looking over her multiple screens.

"You don't think that whoever is behind this is trying to, you know, make chemical weapons, do you?" asked Felicity, the signs of worry more apparent on her face.

Diggle let out a long sigh and turned to look at her.

"I don't know," he said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. "I hope to God not. Its not pretty when they're used."

"When did you-" started Felicity, a puzzled look on her face. "Oh, the Army. That's right." She made to turn away from him and back towards her computers when she stopped. Turning back around, her face was covered in an even more puzzled look.

"Hang on. I thought the Army never used chemical weapons in combat?" she said.

"They don't," said Diggle flatly. "But that doesn't stop other people from using them. I've seen what they can do, and I hope I never see it again."

Walking away from her computers, Digg grabbed his gun from a nearby table, sat down in a chair and began to disassemble and clean it; another routine he'd fallen into with the lull in activity. Cleaning his gun had always been relaxing for him, almost therapeutic. It gave him a sense of calm and it allowed to him act mechanically without having to plan his next moves carefully. It also gave him a sense of confidence that the next time he would need to use his gun, it would be ready and wouldn't fail him. He couldn't afford something like that now, not when so many people were counting on him to do his part and come back alive.

All was silent in the lair as he worked, except for the occasional sound of metal on metal as he slid various parts out and back in. He knew that, at that moment, he couldn't do anything to help Oliver, which made him feel useless. He hated feeling useless. He also knew that Felicity, who might've been able to assist him in some way, was too nervous to speak, so he didn't prompt her to say anything.

The minutes ticked by, when suddenly Felicity straightened up from her previously slouched position and put her hand to her earpiece.

"What?" she said quickly.

Instantly her face went from semi-relaxed to shocked, her mouth dropping open in apparent horror.

"What!" she exclaimed, confusion evident in her voice. "How? I thought that it couldn't be made anymore, now that The Count is dead!"

"What is it? What's happened?" said Digg, already moving towards Felicity.

She held up a hand to him, not looking away from her computer screens, her face still covered in shock, listening intently to whatever Oliver was saying.

"Are you alright? Do you need me or Digg to come get you?" she said hurriedly, finally turning to face him.

He looked into her eyes and saw that she was panicking. Whatever had happened to Oliver definitely wasn't good. Felicity had been through a lot with them, and although she was still new to the hardships that came with war she'd seen her fair share of emergencies. Whatever happened had shaken her up pretty badly, and that made him feel even more apprehensive. He was about to ask her what had happened, but before he could say anything, her voice exploded through the lair.

"Oliver!" she yelled, worry showing plainly on her face. "You're driving a motorcycle! Not focusing is exactly the opposite of what you need to be doing! Where are you right now?"

Digg listened intently, trying to see if he could hear what Oliver was saying to Felicity, but he couldn't make out anything. Piecing together what he had heard Felicity say, Digg tried to understand what had happened to Oliver, but with the snippets of information that he had gathered he couldn't come up with much.

"Ok," he heard Felicity say quietly and he turned to look at her again.

Again, before he could speak, Felicity started in a rush.

"Oliver said that he thinks that he's been drugged with something like Vertigo."

"What!" exclaimed Diggle "How?"

"That's what I said, but he didn't say anything! He did say that he wanted you to make him an antidote for Vertigo!" said Felicity hurriedly, her face still shining with a fearful expression.

"On it," he responded quickly, moving before he had even spoken.

He made his way swiftly over to where Oliver kept his trunk from the Island and knelt down next to it. Opening it up he rifled through its contents until he found the little drawstring leather pouch that contained the cure-all Island herb. Grabbing a few in his hand, he put the pouch back into the trunk and shut the lid, quickly making his way over to a table that had become their makeshift med bay.

Mixing the ingredients as carefully and quickly as he could he tried to come up with all of the possible solutions to how Oliver had been poisoned by Vertigo again. Even though the Count now dead for good, as well as the doctor, he guessed that someone else knew the recipe for the awful drug and that they were using the stolen chemicals to make more of it. Mentally making a note to be sure and eradicate Vertigo for good, he added the ground up herbs to water and stirred them together, forming the antidote.

"It's ready!" said Diggle over his shoulder. "Where is he now?"

Felicity, who had been facing her monitors, whipped around to look at him.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure," she said, her lips pursing together. "I'm getting a lot of interference from something, maybe the storm. Because of it I can't get a lock on his location!"

"Damn," said Diggle as he strode over to Felicity's desk. "Where was the break in?"

"Here," and she pointed to a location on a map that was pulled up on her monitor.

"How long should it take him to get here?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Driving the speed limit about fifteen minutes," said Felicity, looking back at the map.

"Well, lets hope he drives faster than that," he said.

Diggle stayed put near Felicity as they waited for Oliver's return. Neither of them spoke, the tension palpable in the room, and he could see the fear welling up inside Felicity as the minutes dragged by.

Suddenly, she spoke, her voice full of worry.

"Oliver, are you alright?"

Digg looked at her, trying to gauge Oliver's response from her facial expression.

"What? What happened?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I heard a definite grunt, almost like he was in pain, but now all I hear is him breathing. Why won't he respond?" she said, quickly, the words seemingly spilling from her mouth.

"Can you make it to where we can both hear what's happening?" said Digg.

Felicity turned sharply back towards her keyboard, and after a few taps, the sound of Oliver's labored breathing and what sounded like rain was coming from the speakers.

"Dad?" came Oliver's voice suddenly.

Digg turned to look at Felicity, her face mirroring his expression of complete and utter shock. What in the world was going on?

A few more seconds passed of the sound of Oliver's heavy breathing filling up the room, and then he spoke again, his voice even more shaky and quiet than before.

"Mom?"

Now Diggle was extremely worried. He was certain the Moira had died at the hands of Slade, and was almost positive, from what Oliver had told him of the Island, that his father was dead as well, so he ruled out immediately that his parents were actually alive and wherever he was at that moment. That left only one solution; whatever was in him was making him hallucinate.

"Oliver, can you hear me?" said Felicity into her earpiece. "Please Oliver, what is going on? Where are you?"

The only answer to her question was the sound of his breathing and the rain, both of which seemed to have picked up in intensity.

"Find him Felicity," said Digg quickly, looking over at her. "He needs our help, now."

Felicity nodded and turned back toward her computers, typing away furiously, as his voice rang through the lair again, this time barely a whisper.

"Please, don't go."

He had never felt more helpless in his entire life. His friend, his brother in arms was somewhere, alone, in the rain and probably hurt, hallucinating about his dead parents, and there was nothing he could do to help him. He had to fight back to overwhelming urge to drive off in search of him that instant, knowing that Felicity was looking for him. They would find him, and Digg would find whoever did this to Oliver, and when he did, he would make sure that they wouldn't see the light of day again, whether he put them in the ground or in prison he didn't care.

"Thea." came Oliver's voice, sounding unlike anything Digg had ever heard before from him. All of the power, confidence and anger that usually filled his Green Arrow voice were gone, replaced solely by fear.

"Digg, I've got him!" screamed Felicity suddenly. Grabbing his shoulder and pointing at one of her screens she started again. "He's in the back parking lot, he's here!"

Wasting no time Diggle started to sprint towards the stairs that led up and out of the lair. Before he had gotten to the stairs though, he heard Oliver's voice again.

"Thea!"

Oliver's scream seemed to reverberate around the walls, echoing and distorting, the fear so real in his voice. That fear drove an icy spike into Diggle as he propelled himself up the stair three at a time. When he reached the top of the stairs he lowered his shoulder into the door and crashed through it, knocking it clean open where it stayed.

Not breaking stride, he caught sight of Oliver, lying face down on the asphalt, his arms outstretched in front of him, merely feet from the door.

"Oliver," said Diggle as he got to his side. He put his fingers to his throat, checking for any sign of a pulse, which he got in seconds. Oliver's pulse was extremely elevated, even for his standards, not a good sign.

Diggle removed his hand from Oliver's throat and placed them both around his waist. Pulling up, he slung Oliver over his shoulder and moved swiftly back towards to door. He hardly noticed his dead weight as he rushed back down the stairs and into the lair.

"Get the antidote!" he called out as he descended the last stair and made his way to the table.

Felicity immediately rushed over, antidote in hand and helped Digg lower Oliver's limp body onto the table.

"Oh my God, what's wrong with him? What happened?" she said, her voice a terrified whisper.

"Don't know, but he's passed out," said Digg as he unzipped Oliver's rain soaked jacket. Throwing it aside, he held out his hand for the cup filled with the antidote, which Felicity pushed into it moments later. "Hold up his head so we can get this in him.

Felicity did as he said, and once Oliver's head was tilted up, Digg opened his mouth and poured the contents of the cup in.

"Now we wait," said Digg, sighing heavily and setting the empty cup down on the table.

"What will happen?" asked Felicity, the fear still evident on her face and in her voice. She also hadn't let Oliver's head back down and was clutching it to her like it was a lifeline. "How will we know if he's better? Will he wake up?"

"I don't know Felicity, I just don't know."

Minutes seemed to pass like hours as the waited for something, anything, to happen. Diggle paced back and forth in front of the table, occasionally looking over to check on Oliver who hadn't moved at all. Neither, he noticed, had Felicity, who still held Oliver's head to her, absentmindedly running her fingers up and down his face.

Suddenly the quiet of the lair was interrupted by the sounds of the storm raging outside, but only for a moment. Following the silence was the sound of the heavy door closing, and an almost imperceptible sound of a footfall.

Glancing at Felicity who now seemed absolutely terrified, Diggle snatched his gun off of the nearby table and made his way so that he was putting himself in between Oliver, Felicity, and the stairs. Even though he had no idea what was coming, he knew he needed to protect his friends, his family, at all cost.

The quiet footfalls grew marginally louder as whoever was coming down the stairs grew closer. Suddenly the sound stopped, just at the edge of the stairs that were covered in darkness.

Leveling his gun at the stairs, Diggle called out. "I'm warning you now, I'm armed."

For a while there was no reply, and as Diggle was about ready to speak again, a rough, deep voice spoke.

"Put the gun down."

"Come out now, or I shoot!" said Digg, readjusting his grip on his pistol, readying himself.

There was a slight rustling sound from the darkness of the stairs, a blur of movement, and suddenly something collided with the barrel of his gun, knocking it out of his hands and out of reach.

"I told you to put it away," came the voice again, this time louder. The light sound of footfalls began again and Diggle saw who spoke come out of the darkness.

The first thing Diggle saw emerge from the shadows was a large black boot, which was followed by a body. The figure was large and imposing, clad in what looked like a dark grey suit of body armor, except for the hands and feet, which were covered in black. The only thing still obscured by darkness was the figures head.

"Who are you?" asked Diggle, squinting to see more of the person.

The figure stepped forward and Diggle got his first good look at him. Around his shoulders and down to his feet billowed a large black cape, but what startled Digg the most was the man's face. Only his mouth and part of his chin was exposed, the rest was covered in a black mask with large, pointed ears.

"I'm here to help," said Batman.


End file.
